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Deloitte and QB3

QB3 is collaborating with Deloitte to improve how we convert bioscience innovation into a driver for jobs, companies and better health in California.

Deloitte is a major provider of corporate business services, with strengths in auditing, tax, financial advisory services and consulting. Deloitte’s capacities, combined with QB3’s expertise in harvesting university research output, are enabling our team to develop blueprints for an “innovation ecosystem” to support regional growth in the biosciences, optimized mentoring services for entrepreneurs, and more.

In December 2010, several Deloitte staff began working part-time at the QB3 headquarters at UCSF Mission Bay. Our colleagues include Deloitte leaders Matthew Hudes, Deloitte’s U.S. leader for biotechnology, and Christie Smith, PhD, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP and Northern Pacific sector leader for life sciences, as well as Aparupa Bhattacharya, William Engelbrecht, Lily Chhatwal, Regina Leong, Andres Mejia, and Ida Momtaheni.

Our relationship began when we invited Christie Smith to present a business view on growth and collaboration in California at our “Jobs Through Innovation” event, which took place on February 23, 2011. Christie reviewed what several other states are doing to stimulate their economies in the bioscience sector, highlighting initiatives taken by Texas, Ohio, and Massachusetts.

In 2011, we gathered third-party feedback, conducted outside research, and met with experts to assess how QB3 could build on its success and continue to drive value to our stakeholders while supporting its sustainability in an uncertain economic environment. The project included interviews with UC researchers, entrepreneurs and faculty, and leaders in industry, government, and venture finance to learn how they perceived QB3’s accomplishments and potential. Deloitte analyzed the feedback and summarized the results in a confidential report completed in July 2011.

One conclusion of the report was that QB3 should reorganize staff and resources into the “InnoLab,” a division explicitly devoted to entrepreneurship, industry partnership, and policy. (See the web story.) Deloitte is continuing help QB3 plan and execute a strategy to create an innovation ecosystem in California and to develop a “playbook” that could be exported to other regions.

Separately, Deloitte and QB3 created the Deloitte QB3 Award for Innovation, an annual research award that recognizes a QB3 scientist who has developed an innovation to improve human health. 38 candidates were nominated for the 2011 award. See the video of the five finalists and the web story about the winner.